Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoy is to present Moscow's case for expanding its claim to continental shelf territory in the Arctic Ocean before a United Nations commission on February 9.

Russia submitted an application to the commission on the limits of the continental shelf last August, claiming that the Lomonosov Ridge and other parts of the Arctic seabed belong to its continental shelf.

Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States have also made claims to the same areas.

"Our materials are well prepared, and we can work with them and use them as proof," Donskoy said ahead his trip to New York. "We will be actively doing so."

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea allows states to expand their economic zone provided that the seabed beyond it is a natural extension of the continental edge.

As much as 30 percent of unexplored global reserves of natural gas and 15 percent of unexplored oil reserves are estimated to lie in the Arctic's underwater fields.